rustup
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 7 version managers by recommenders
Installs and switches Rust compilers and toolchains, with quick setup and easy switching between compiler versions. Critics point to its curl-to-shell install script.
Installs and switches Rust compilers and toolchains, with quick setup and easy switching between compiler versions. Critics point to its curl-to-shell install script.
19 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 74%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Standard, quick way to install Rust
“Installing the toolchain with rustup is quick and painless, even on Windows.”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “Zig and the design choices within” “Hasn’t the right way to install rust has always been using rust up?”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “What it means that Ubuntu is using Rust” “Execute the one-liner here: https://rustup.rs/”
Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Reverse engineering Codex CLI to get GPT-5-Codex-Mini to draw me a pelican” - Comment from 5 Nov 2025 in “Bluetui – A TUI for managing Bluetooth on Linux”
Fetches toolchains without issue
“The easy path is downloading binary toolchains with rustup and not using your disto package manager.”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Ladybird Browser adopts Rust” “rustup does a great job of fetching the required toolchains without issue”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development” Easy switching between compiler versions
“Rustup makes it easy to switch compiler versions to get back to the same one you used, too.”
Comment from 3 May 2026 in “Embedded Rust or C Firmware? Lessons from an Industrial Microcontroller Use Case” “downloading a specific nightly version is only a single rustup command”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Rust in the kernel is no longer experimental”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Install relies on curl-to-shell script
“an unsigned "curl | sh" style magic script”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “Supply chain nightmare: How Rust will be attacked and what we can do to mitigate” “Rustup teaches people to do curl | sh.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Linux 0.11 rewritten in idiomatic Rust, boots in QEMU” “attackers have the work done for them”
Comment from 8 May 2026 in “Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit”
Other version managers people recommend
The four most recommended other version managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mise | 137 | 22 | 86% | 12 | 1 yr4 owners | Approved |
| asdf version manager | 17 | 3 | 85% | 8 | — | Approved |
| rustupThis page | 14 | 5 | 74% | 8 | — | Approved |
| SDKMAN | 12 | 1 | 92% | 2 | — | — |
| nvm | 7 | 13 | 35% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
17 of the 20 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“As a user that surprised me at first, but I've grown to really like it!”
“enough Rust enthusiast cared also about other real-word security issues enough to get this fixed”
“Rustup teaches people to do curl | sh.”
“the command doesn't exactly roll off the tongue”
“attackers have the work done for them”
“Rustup makes it easy to switch compiler versions to get back to the same one you used, too.”
“an unsigned "curl | sh" style magic script”
“Hasn’t the right way to install rust has always been using rust up?”
“The easy path is downloading binary toolchains with rustup and not using your disto package manager.”
“Before rustup can run, the very first message rustup-init spits out is asking to install the visual studio tool chain.”
“rustup does a great job of fetching the required toolchains without issue”
“the standard distribution (rustup) can work as a cross-compiler to a no-OS target out of the box”
“downloading a specific nightly version is only a single rustup command”
“Installing the toolchain with rustup is quick and painless, even on Windows.”
“Execute the one-liner here: https://rustup.rs/”
“IIRC rustup provides the option to use it instead of the MSVC toolchain during the initial installation”
“That's generally straightforward with rustup”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.